Green Week : Recycling

'An interesting and important account.'Daily TelegraphHave you ever stopped and wondered where your jeans came from? Who made them and where? Ever wondered where they end up after you donate them for recycling?Following a pair of jeans, Clothing Poverty takes the reader on a vivid around-the-world tour to reveal how clothes are manufactured and retailed, bringing to light how fast fashion and clothing recycling are interconnected. Andrew Brooks shows how recycled clothes are traded across continents, uncovers how retailers and international charities are embroiled in commodity chains which perpetuate poverty, and exposes the hidden trade networks which transect the globe.Stitching together rich narratives, from Mozambican markets, Nigerian smugglers and Chinese factories to London's vintage clothing scene, TOMS shoes and Vivienne Westwood's ethical fashion lines, Brooks uncovers the many hidden sides of fashion.

This landmark reference is a comprehensive, one-stop, interdisciplinary resource that examines current, critical social issues in historical and global contexts. Nearly 150 in-depth, balanced, and thought-provoking articles cover a broad range of critically important topics: the environment, health, science, the media, ethnic conflicts, poverty, and immigration, to name just a few. Each original, signed article provides historical context as well as a thorough discussion and analysis of contemporary issues facing today's interconnected world.

Making is good for you. Exploring crafts can be relaxing and therapeutic : the projects in this book are accessible to anyone who is inspired to recycle old clothes and textiles into unique, decorative, useful projects. Our forbears improvised tools to recycle their worn clothes - mostly dark suiting or mill waste if they lived near a mill. Usually they made mats for their cold floors or as draft excluders across doors. Nowadays you can choose from so many more colours and textures - painting with rags! Try one project or more. You will be able to use the techniques to design and make your own one-off items for your home or as hand-made gifts. The techniques here are traditional and simple - you will be surprised at how drab fabrics become transformed.

Recycling is one of the hottest new trends in embroidery, and this is the first book on the subject. Covering the techniques of both hand and machine embroidery, it's packed with ideas for using different types of salvaged material-from fabric, paper, dried flowers, and tree bark, to metal waste, plastic, broken jewellery, and personal souvenirs. Along with the practical instruction, there's inspiring advice on how recycling can be used to give special creative meaning to a piece of embroidery. The exciting possibilities are illustrated throughout with stunning colour photographs of work by some of today's leading embroiderers.

Issues looks at collecting and sharing information that is diverse and current, at the time of publication. With the UK producing around 200 million tonnes of waste on average every year and the population growing, what is the best solution to our waste problem? This book looks at the waste statistics of the UK and other areas of the globe and trying to figure out why some areas are better at dealing with waste than others are.

"Reduce, Reuse, Recycle, and Recover" is the sustainable guideline that has replaced the "Take, Make, Waste" attitude of the industrial age. Based on their background at the ETH Zurich and the Future Cities Laboratory in Singapore, the authors provide both a conceptual and practical look into materials and products which use waste as a renewable resource. This book introduces an inventory of current projects and building elements, ranging from marketed products, among them façade panels made of straw and self-healing concrete, to advanced research and development like newspaper, wood or jeans denim used as isolating fibres. Going beyond the mere recycling aspect of reused materials, it looks into innovative concepts of how materials usually regarded as waste can be processed into new construction elements.